Wino Fever

Mickey Rourke to film movie scene in Dover
Hollywood meets Blackwell, as 'Wrestler' comes to Baker

BY MICHAEL SCHOLL
DAILY RECORD
Monday, March 3, 2008

DOVER -- The glitz of Hollywood moviemaking and the grittiness of professional wrestling both will be on display here next month when tough-guy actor Mickey Rourke comes to town to film a scene for his upcoming movie, "The Wrestler."

The filming will take place during a pair of live professional wrestling shows on March 14 and 15 at the Baker Theater on West Blackwell Street.

Rourke is scheduled to be at the theater both nights to film the climactic, final scene of the film, a "Rocky"-like tale in which Rourke plays an aging wrestler with heart disease named Randy "The Ram" Robinson. Despite the risk of suffering a second, potentially fatal heart attack, the character goes back into the ring for one last bout against his old rival, a villain known as "The Ayatollah."

People who attend the shows at the Baker will appear in the film's shots of the audience.

The co-producer of "The Wrestler," Mark Heyman, said the Robinson character "used to be a really big star in the '80s" wrestling circuit, but as he aged he found himself wrestling for lower-level companies before smaller crowds. The potential match with The Ayatollah would be a 20th anniversary rematch of an earlier epic bout and would be Robinson's chance to reclaim some lost glory.

Heyman said the film was inspired by the desire to tell the story of the struggles of aging wrestlers. Although the outcome of pro wrestling matches generally are scripted and preordained, Heyman said wrestlers' bodies "do take a lot of punishment" during performances and training.

"The pain and strain they feel is very real," Heyman said.

The film is being directed by Darren Aronofsky, who directed the critically acclaimed "Requiem for a Dream," a 2000 film dealing with people facing addictions. He also helmed the 2006 fantasy flick "The Fountain."

Stars come to town

"The Wrestler" also stars Oscar-winner Marisa Tomei as a stripper in her mid-30s who befriends Rourke's character, and Evan Rachel Wood as Rourke's character's estranged daughter.

The 55-year-old Rourke has put together an eclectic career that early on featured a critically acclaimed role in "The Pope of Greenwich Village" alongside Daryl Hannah and Eric Roberts. He played other leading roles in the mid-1980s, including the lead alongside Kim Basinger in the film "9½ Weeks."

An amateur boxer before he got into movie acting, Rourke decided to give up acting and return to the ring as a professional boxer in 1991. But his pro boxing career was short-lived, and he returned to acting in the mid-1990s. His most prominent role since his return to the screen was his performance as Marv in the 2005 film "Sin City."

Heyman said Rourke's own struggle to rebuild his acting career after some early successes and later failures helped to make him ideal for the role of Robinson. He also said Rourke is a "tremendous actor" who has the imposing physicality needed to portray a pro wrestler.

"There are very few actors of his ability that are also believable as wrestlers," Heyman said. He added that Rourke "just looks unbelievable and incredibly convincing in the role.

"He's trained very hard and is looking very good," Heyman said.

Heyman said "The Wrestler" is slated to be released in the summer or fall of 2009. He expects that the film will have an appeal beyond wrestling fans, since it deals with the universal theme of aging.